Among the most-stunning outcomes of European Parliament elections Sunday night, the Syrizia Party (Party of the Radical Left) of Greek Prime Minister Aleksis Tsipras suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of the New Democracy Conservative Party.
In a never-expected move, Tsipras announced, once returns were in, he would move the national election scheduled for October to a "snap" election June 30.
The returns were nothing short of devastating for Tsipras, who oversaw his country ending its debt crisis last year. In near final results, New Democrary led Syrizia by a margin of 32.4 to 24%.
"This is the biggest difference among the two leading parties in a European Parliament election in Greece, which traditionally is associated with loose voting habits that benefit smaller parties," Katerina Sokou, Washington, D.C., bureau chief of the venerable Greek publication Kathemerini.
Sokou added the elections "were deemed by the opposition to be a referendum, or a confidence vote by the government, ahead of national elections."
At this point, most polls give New Democracy leads of 6-9%. Its leader, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, makes no secret he is a conservative reformer in the mold of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher.
In an interview with Newsmax last year, the son of the late Premier Konstantinos Mitsotakis said his major goal was to make reforms "in public administration and education, in privatization, and in reform of the judicial system. Pensions will also be critical. At some point, we need to rethink the architecture of the whole system. I want to use the private sector to do this."
John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.
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